1. Field of the Invention
The present teaching relates to a liquid jetting apparatus configured to jet liquid.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a liquid jetting apparatus configured to jet liquid from nozzles, there is conventionally known an ink-jet printer which performs printing on a recording sheet by jetting ink to the recording sheet from nozzles of an ink-jet head. The ink-jet printer generally performs the printing on the recording sheet by jetting the ink from the nozzles while reciprocatively moving the ink-jet head in a direction orthogonal to a sheet conveyance direction of the recording sheet. This ink-jet printer performs flushing, in which the ink is jetted from the nozzles to a flushing receiving part, in order to prevent the drying of ink in the nozzles, etc. The flushing receiving part includes, for example, an absorbing member absorbing the ink which landed thereon and a guide member having a slope for allowing the ink which landed thereon to slide down.
When different types inks having different solidification properties are used for the liquid jetting apparatus, easily-solidifying ink may adhere to and solidify on the surface of the flushing receiving part. In this situation, when the next flushing is performed with the ink solidified on the surface of the flushing receiving part, the easily-solidifying ink jetted from the nozzles adheres to and solidifies on the ink solidified on the surface of the flushing receiving part. If this occurs repeatedly, the solidified ink accumulates on the surface of the flushing receiving part. The accumulation of the solidified ink causes such a problem that the lower surface of the ink-jet head is brought into contact with the ink accumulated on the surface of the flushing receiving part during the movement of the ink-jet head.
In order to solve the above problem, there has been conventionally used the following another ink-jet printer, wherein the flushing is performed so that easily-solidifying black ink at first lands on a flushing receiving part (slope member); after that, the ink-jet head moves; and then color inks, which are less likely to solidify than the black ink, land at the landing position of the black ink on the flushing receiving part. Mixing the black ink adhering to the flushing receiving part with the color inks prevent the solidification of the black ink, and consequently prevent the accumulation of the black ink. The flushing includes a case in which the ink is jetted with the ink-jet head stopped and a case in which the ink is jetted with the ink-jet head moved.